Sunday 5 October 2008

Plunkett to become a Pear?

Why Liam Plunkett is the man Steve Rhodes should look to. . .

Since writing in a previous article that Worcestershire need to sign a quality fast bowler to partner Simon Jones and Kabir Ali for the club’s bid to stay up in Division One, it has come to my attention that Liam Plunkett is unhappy at Durham and wants a chance to play more regular cricket to try and claim his England place back. For me, Steve Rhodes should drive up to Durham himself and get the boy signed.

Despite not playing much (seven championship games) he still managed to hit two fifties down the order, and took 16 wickets at 32.5. Whilst this average would not scare most Division One batsman, he was in and out of the side and is likely to face competition once again from Harmison, Onions, Davies and whoever else the champions sign.

Often much maligned as an England cricketer, he did show potential in his handful of showings for his country. One of Duncan Fletchers “bits and pieces” players, he played for England’s ODI team in their worst run in history, and despite this still took 37 wickets in 27 matches.

Still only 23, Plunkett has massive potential, and if he needs first team cricket to realise this then there is no reason at all why this shouldn’t be at New Road.

6 comments:

Tim said...

Interesting stuff. Plunkett impressed me a fair bit for England, and has batting talent and a great attitude to go with swinging the ball late at 90mph. But he needs cricket...another season like last will do him no good whatsoever.

Steve said...

That is interesting. Perhaps Plunkett hasnot yet worked out that Harmison is unlikely to play much,if at all for Durham next season,unless he has a very poor winter tour.Therefore there will be a pace bowling vacancy at Durham for which Plunkett is a primary contender along with Onions. Durham regularly field a pace attack of 4 so his chances of the regularity he desires will be apparent.

He has managed to gain selection for the Performance squad tour before Christmas despite a poor season marred by an early injury and then inconsistency.The inconsistency was the reason he was not selected for the Championship run in and he must know that.

Is Plunkett's frustration justified? Or have his comments been taken out of context and spun to createa story.Afterall,he recently signed a 2 year contract,so he must have been happy then.

Richard Lake said...

I suspect his frustration has been taken a little out of context, and it will be interesting to see how he performs with a full pre-season behind him.

If he is to move, I would think that Yorkshire may be the more little destination. He was born in the county and still lives in Middlesborough. And Yorkshire have Darren Gough to replace.

durhamfootman said...

And of course LP signed an extension to his contract just a couple of months ago. Funny that!

Steve said...

The source of this article is probably from Norman Durham's post on "Corridors of uncertainty"
www.fansonline.net/yorkshireccc

Apparently Norman is a based in Middlesborough and uses selected quotes but is a bit short on detail.A well used journalistic principal of 'keep it simple and exagerate'.

Anonymous said...

As posted previously the story about Plunkett leaving Durham is a fabrication.The only county linked with the fantasy was Yorkshire who have stated (31/10 -Yorkshire Post)that he isnot in their sights.